Must Reads: Iraq, Katrina, and Michael Richards; but Mostly Iraq

Posted by Freddie on December 3, 2006 under Uncategorized |

“All the King’s Horses…”, by Michael Hirsh (Newsweek)
Hirsh thinks that the situation in Iraq is hopeless. But there’s still much good that can be done in Afghanistan, so why aren’t we focusing on that?!

“Fantastic Job, Mr. President”, by Richard Cohen (Washington Post)
Cohen catches the President actually lying. But, uh, so did the rest of the media. Why didn’t anybody say anything?! Moment of accountability Liberadio(!)’s ass! How about a moment of credibility? I bet there are WMDs in Iraq, too.

“Legal Victory for Survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita” (Public Citizen)
Nobody’s written a cheeky country song rhyming “forgotten” with “Katrina”, yet. Maybe FEMA was hoping that nobody would notice their taking with one hand and giving nothing with the other to the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes? Compassionate incompetence rears its head again.

“Defining a Racist”, by Malcom Gladwell
Thoughts on racism from an influential pop academic. Check out the implicit association tests referenced in the piece.

“Rumsfeld’s Memo of Options for Iraq War” (New York Times)
So Donald Rumsfeld wrote this memo, right? And it has phrases like, “it is time for a major adjustment”, and “Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough”, and “Set a firm withdrawal date to leave”, right? And if he were a Democrat, he would have been roundly critized as “a defeatist, an appeaser, a terrorist-coddler” before the elections, right? Hm. Maybe that’s why Bush fired him. Or not. (hat tip: Jake Tapper)

“Corruption: the ’second insurgency’ costing $4bn a year”, by Julian Borger and David Pallister (The Guardian)
One third of rebuilding contracts in Iraq are under criminal investigation!!! I, for one, am glad that we cleaned House (and Senate) in 2006 in the U.S. Now let’s make sure the Democrats use their freaking powers of oversight!